CONTACTS 
0201 - Transamerica Realty Services, Inc. 415 983 5497
020101 - Mr. Donald G. Harms

SUBJECTS
Sales discussions
Evaluation, Sales Presentation Ideas
Send product information, requesting give
Correlations Implications Incite Hunch

0906 -    ..
0907 - Summary/Objective
0908 -
090801 - Followed up work at ref SDS 14 line 53.  Don has received the memo on
090802 - using SDS at PG&E which was transmitted at ref SDS 14 line 65 via ref
090803 - DIP 2 line 27.
090804 -
090805 -
090806 -  ..
0909 -
0910 -
0911 - Discussion
0912 -
091201 - Don said Transamerica needs a major project to support introduction
091202 - of SDS where a budget can be set out for it.  He feels getting
091203 - approval for everyday management activity would be difficult to sell
091204 - at Transamerica.
091205 -
091206 -     I agree.  While I use SDS for everyday "routine" management, this
091207 -     is a skill that must be acquired.  To acquire the skill, the best
091208 -     approach has been to introduce SDS on a major project that can
091209 -     financially support transitional training.  Using SDS requires
091210 -     awareness that managers and organizations can make more money and
091211 -     work faster by slowing down in order to increase "understanding."
091212 -
091213 -     Instead of hanging up the phone and going to the next task, or
091214 -     throwing the notes of a meeting in the briefcase and heading for
091215 -     the next meeting, I have become aware from experience that a lot
091216 -     of critical, but subtle, implications arise from human communica-
091217 -     tions that are only discoverable from entering the record in SDS,
091218 -     as I am doing now.  People spend more of their time correcting
091219 -     mistakes due to overlooked implications, than is consumed by
091220 -     writing the record, but they cannot "know" this until they gain
091221 -     experience with SDS.  Without this experience, "Murphy's Law,"
091222 -     ineptness by others, opportunistic, predatory lawyers, etc., ref
091223 -     SDS 11 line 122, are convenient scapegoats for the constant
091224 -     stream of mistakes on which managers presently invest their time.
091225 -
091226 -         The challenge in selling SDS is educating people about how
091227 -         the mind works:  what we seem to "know" at the time events
091228 -         transpire, is incorrect and comingled with other information
091229 -         from other events with similar fact patterns, and that this
091230 -         confusion grows with time, but is hidden until disaster
091231 -         strikes under the name of "Murphy's Law" explained at ref SDS
091232 -         9 line 238.  This is why investing time to discover and shape
091233 -         what we know greatly improves productivty by exposing our
091234 -         confusion so it can be cleared up before disaster strikes, as
091235 -         explained by Bill DeHart in the meetig with Chris Snyder at
091236 -         PG&E, ref SDS 10 line 109.
091237 -
091238 -     SDS says why not invest time to discover knowledge needed to
091239 -     avoid these mistakes.  This saves time and money.
091240 -
091241 -     The response has been that managers don't "know" they can do
091242 -     this.  The only way they can gain this knowledge is by gaining
091243 -     actual experience, or by relying on someone in whom they have
091244 -     confidence, i.e. a credible source.  Thus, the idea of using SDS
091245 -     on a major project where this experience can be acquired, makes a
091246 -     lot of sense.
091247 -
091248 -     Educating people about the value of their own knowledge and ideas
091249 -     is similar to selling the encyclopedia 200 years ago when it was
091250 -     introduced by Diderot and Voltaire, see ref SDS 7 line 226.
091251 -     Today, people "know" the value of an encyclopedia in storing and
091252 -     retrieving knowledge and ideas of others, but they do not yet
091253 -     "know" the value of SDS in capturing, shaping, preserving and
091254 -     retrieving their own knowledge and ideas.
091255 -
091256 -
091257 - Don is concerned that SDS requires being a fast typist.
091258 -
091259 -     I explained SDS is no different from the way people takes notes
091260 -     for phone calls or meetings.  People are unable to write an
091261 -     adequate record of meetings and phone calls during such events,
091262 -     because dialog occurs too fast and wanders.  People cannot write
091263 -     while they are speaking.  Meaning often emerges only after a
091264 -     meeting while considering the relation between dialog at
091265 -     different times and/or events.
091266 -
091267 -     Only SDS provides an environment that spurs human memory about
091268 -     correlations and implications of new discussion using the record
091269 -     of past events, people, documents and subjects.  This integra-
091270 -     tion enables careful consideration, and fleshing out the record
091271 -     as events unfold in the fullness of time.
091272 -
091273 -
091274 - I said the more important attribute of using SDS is a recognition the
091275 - past is prologue, i.e. that history is important because it fortells
091276 - the future.  This recognizes the links between what we do today, what
091277 - has already been done and what will occur tomorrow.  The more we
091278 - understand and can accurately recall these relationships, the greater
091279 - our chances of success become.
091280 -
091281 - We plan to hit some tennis tomorrow at 1700.
091282 -
091283 -
091284 -
0913 -